I can cast a bit of light on John Jackson and Hermanajilda Paisley. A quick summary is half way down this page: http://www.thepeerage.com/p46743.htm I am a descendent of John and Hermanajilda's youngest son, Henry Arthur Franklin Jackson (b 1830) who served in the British Indian Navy and later as Surveyor General in New Zealand
I believe there are records in the New Zealand National Library in Wellington, but I have not seen them, being on the other side of the Tasman. The reference is http://natlib.govt.nz/items/22810202 Let me know if you get any further. DN

Nice to hear from you. I am also based in Australia, but I have been to the National Library and the Turnbull library in Wellington and have copies of some of the material from there. You may be aware that the question of whether John Jackson and Hermanjilda were actually married has been a source of contention over the years, and, as far as I have been able to see there is no documentary evidence of a formal marriage. I have some copies of research that was commissioned in the 1980s by Henry's descendants to try to uncover such evidence, but none was found. I'm inclined to think there was no formal ceremony, at least in the eyes of English law, but this is based on evidence that is not wholly convincing, i.e, the omission of Henry and his siblings from any mention in John Jackson's will and the fact that the baronetcy passed down through the children of John's marriage to Honoria (from which I am descended). However, there are letters that show that there was a close relationship between Henry and his father and his half-brothers. It's a fascinating story and it would be great to get to the bottom of it.
I intend to post the material on the family that I have when I get round to organising it into a coherent form, that might take a while.
I do have some material about Henry's life, including an obituary and biography, but I'm guessing you already have quite a lot of that.

I do have a fair amount of stuff, but Hermanajilda is a mystery. We did have (many years ago) a photograph of what everyone said was her, wearing a spanish "mantilla". (Could also have been Portuguese). One of the McIntyres (mother/grandmother Connie Jackson) in NZ may still have a copy of the photo. I'd like to find out anything about Hermanajilda, but so far have nothing whatever to go on. It would not surprise me if there had been no formal wedding. And I'm assuming she died in 1830. One rumour was that John Jackson "rescued her from penury", either in Ceylon or Macau, suggesting a Portuguese origin. All sorts of family legends about her, with no evidence. Paisley suggests a Scots father, which is consistent with the family legends. So anything you have on her would be most interesting.

Apropos John Jackson, I thought that John jr. was the second son of the first Baronet, and thus not the inheritor of the title. As I recall, Burke's Peerage supports this.

I presume you know that, through Sir John Jackson's wife, Charlotte Spry, we are descendants of the Mayflower Pilgrims. This seems to be well established. I've built a more or less reliable tree on ancestry.com, replicated here: http://www.dcnicholls.com/genealogy/

that should be Charlotte Spry Susannah Goreham

Another thing about Sir John Jackson. His grandfather was Major Robert Jackson, who was a member of the Virginia Militia in the 1750s, as well as serving as a surgeon in the RN, and, it appears, was a friend of the then Colonel George Washington

Hermanajilda is said to have died giving birth to Henry on a voyage to England in 1830, on board the "Orwell". there was definitely a ship call the Orwell making voyages at that time and presumably a captain's log somewhere, but I haven't been able to find that yet. there us a record of the birth of the first child, Charles, in the India BDM records, at
http://indiafamily.bl.uk/UI/NonTabBriefDisplay.aspx?SearchType=AdvanceSearch. I haven't found birth records of any of the others.

I believe the four children were brought up by John and Honoria, along with their own, although none were living with Honoria by the time of the 1841 census. Some evidence for this is the apparent closeness between Henry and John and his sons by Honoria in later letters.

I have a document tracing the descendants of Henry Howland, ancestor of the Mayflower pilgrims, and consequently (eventually) us. You are welcome to it,but it's too big to post here.

The baronetcy passed to John Jackson's side of the family after Sir John Montresor Jackson died in 1980 without any children. His successor, Sir Robert Jackson had daughters but not sons, so when he died, the baronetcy passed to the closest male, Keith Jackson, who was descended from Welby Charles Jackson, son of John. The current holders have not, to my knowledge, ever shown much interest in it. I have made a chart of how the title was handed down, but can't work out how to post it on the site.

With regard to Robert Jackson, this is what I know: Robert Jackson was born in Yorktown, Virginia. He is said to married Elizabeth Brett of Yorktown at Norfolk, Virginia, on 7 November, 1723 , though the date is doubtful, because, as his parents were married only in 1707, this would seem to be a very young marriage. They had seven children. Robert Jackson is the first of the family to join the navy that we have a record of. He was a surgeon on HMS Captain in 1748. He was buried at Chatham on 25 April, 1756. He was buried at Chatham, Kent, on 25 April, 1756. (There was a Royal Navy base at Chatham).

I think there is some confusion between him and Major Robert Jackson, who fought with General Wolfe in the Quebec campaign. As this campaign was after our ancestor Robert Jackson died, his participation seems unlikely!

Thanks. The Hermanajilda information is very helpful. The baronetcy information is also interesting. The other information is consistent with what I've found. It's not clear whether there was a Maj. Robert Jackson with Wolfe, but as Jackson was not an uncommon name, it's conceivable there were two. The other possibility is that the birthdate of 1707 for Robert is wrong. (This could also be explained by there being two Roberts). Elizabeth Brett is also very hard to trace, but there is a reported link with minor nobility.

There are two interesting chat sequences on the roots chat forum:

http://www.rootschat.com/forum/index.php?topic=549402.msg4030130#msg4030130
http://www.rootschat.com/forum/index.php?topic=527552.msg3822532#msg3822532

May be of interest.

Also see:
http://genforum.genealogy.com/jackson/messages/20145.html and
http://genforum.genealogy.com/jackson/messages/20156.html

I have further information on Maria Hermanagilda Paisley Jackson. I received copies of information from the National Library of New Zealand, from the Henry Jackson collection. According to a handwritten genealogy of Henry Jackson, Maria was the "daughter of the Portuguese Consul General Penang" (Penang was of course known as Prince of Wales Island until 1867, and was not part of the Straits Settlements until 1826. However the genealogy was most likely written in the mid 20th C.) An alternative reading of the handwriting has it as "daughter of the Portuguese Consul Macao", but the context of the writing favours the former reading. While not conclusive, this is more consistent with family legends.

That's interesting. I don't thunk it would be Consul General Macau, since Macau was Portuguese. Penang, on the other hand, was controlled by the EIC at the time and it's quite feasible that JJ would have visited. There may some records in the British Library. I hope to be in London next year, and might be able to have a look.

I've noticed an entry on the Peerage site that is sourced to you. It names four children from John Jackson and Maria Hermanagilda. However, two of them are the girls later born to John and Honoria, Catherine Emily and Charlotte Maria. I have the documentary evidence for this. I think the entry needs correcting.

I've only been able to trace evidence for two births to John Jackson before he married Honoria - Henry and Charles. In Henry's case, I can't find any definite documentary evidence of the identity of his mother, apart from hand-written notes which are not totally reliable. Even his death certificate states his mother is unknown (though that doesn't prove anything/). Have you found something else?

Not so far. I didn't provide all the Peerage website information, just the Maria Hermanajilda and Henry Jackson info. (Sorry, I don't check this site very often).

I have done a lot more detailed research into the family since my previous messages, and have written this up in a narrative form. It comes to about 11,000 words, so is too long to post here. You are welcome to a copy of it. It does demonstrate that it is highly unlikely that any marriage between John Jackson and Hermanagilda ever took place, and clears up some of the other confusions in the family history.

The story is still in draft form, and not ready for wider publication. However, if you want to send me your email address in the private messages part of this forum, I will send it to you.

Hi, I have been reading this long conversation and believe my son is researching the topic of Henry Churchill Jackson - born 1930 died lower hutt in 1906. Is this the same decendant that you are all talking about. If it is I would be interested in further information about him and other Jackson decendants.

hi

Hello GJB. Henry Churchill Jackson was the son of Henry Jackson, who was born in 1830 and died in 1930. Henry was the second son of John Jackson (second son of Sir John Jackson, baronet). His mother was said to be Maria Hermanajilda Paisley, but, although she was the mother of his first child, Charles, there is no definite evidence beyond family tradition that I have been able to find that she was the mother of his second. John Jackson married Honoria Anna Maria Daniell, the sister of one his compatriots in the East India Company, in 1832, and they had 12 children, including my great grandfather. The family emigrated to New Zealand in 1856-7.
I have a lot of information on the family, based on years of research, but have not yet collated what I have on Henry. You will find in your research that there is a lot of misinformation around...
I am gradually writing up the stories of the family members. The story of John Jackson is around 10,000 words and nearly 8 MB, so can't be posted here. I am happy to send it to you by email if you can receive an email of that size. Failing that, I have plans to set it all up as a blog before too much longer.

pwelby, I've been offline for a few years, but a new computer and installing the necessary genealogy software has got me involved again. Concerning Maria, I would be most interested to see the results of the research. DN